VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Tran Anh Tuan has asked Thanh Hoa authorities to explain about the news that one commune in this province has up to 500 civil servants.

Inflation of “servants”


Tuan said on Friday that he had requested Thanh Hoa province to report on people’s contribution to the local budget and official statistics of civil servants in Quang Vinh commune of Quang Xuong district.

The Ministry of Home Affairs also asked Thanh Hoa to submit a detailed report on the number of commune and village-level officials in the province before July 10.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ statistics, there are 130,000 villages in Vietnam, with more than 570,000 village-level officials and around 770,000 officials at village and commune levels.

Normally, each village has three officials, including a chief, a vice chief and a police officer. However, there are up to over 900,000 unofficial staffs at village and commune levels.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Duc, an official from the Ministry of Home Affairs, said that each commune has to pay salary for 120-170 officials by local budget, which is raised from local people’s contribution.

Duc said that the state budget only pays salary for a certain number of officials at commune level. Local governments have to pay for unofficial staff.

According to a local newspaper, Quang Vinh commune has only 15 villages, with 9,500 people but it has up to 500 officials. The local budget cannot afford to pay salary to these officials so local people have to pay fees to support them.

Of the 500 officials, only 45 people are paid by the state budget. The commune has to pay around VND400 million ($20,000) for the huge number of officials. As the local budget is limited, the commune asks local people to contribute by rice.

Compiled by P. Lan